“I feel her poems in me, the sense of destruction and unquenchable life, of creativity and genocide, fragmentation and connectedness. They are profoundly touching, heart reaching. I feel admitted in some way to her Armenian culture and experience through a kind of generosity and openness in the poems.”—Adrienne Rich

“Der-Hovanessian has, to be sure, a wonderful, even fearful subject; but knowing what to make of that, how to make it art, is another and rarer matter.”—James Merrill

From the Book:

Isolde’s Lament

Of course, I loved you, but
that was such a different need,
so different from today,

another want, a stronger thirst.
Now all I’d ask is you to rise
even to walk away.

DIANA DER-HOVANESSIAN is the author of more than 23 books of poetry and translations. She has won awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Society of America, PEN/Columbia Translation Center, National Writers Union, Armenian Writers Union, American Scholar, and the Armenian Ministry of Culture. Her books of poetry include The Second Question, The Burning Glass, Any Day Now, and The Circle Dancers.